Tag: Nablus

Shooting at Kites; Bulldozing Schools

by Sam Messier and Jill Dreier

This morning the military pulled out most, but not all, of its presence from Nablus. Though still officially under curfew, many people started coming out into the streets and opening their shops. Internationals, including the two of us from Colorado, purchased several bags of food to distribute to families who were still too frightened to leave their homes during curfew.

While purchasing bread, the internationals witnessed two APC’s pull up outside the bread shop. As the shop-owner hurriedly closed up, the internationals shielded him and his customers from the soldiers and escorted the remaining customers to their nearby houses. A Molotov cocktail was thrown from an alleyway at street level. It grazed one APC, but caused no injury to the soldier inside. The soldier immediately began firing into the surrounding buildings, not just where the Molotov was tossed from but into upper floor apartments. The internationals shouted for him to stop. After a brief stand-off, the soldiers backed away and left.

Less than an hour later, the soldiers returned to this area with reinforcements, more APC’s and a tank. Internationals stood on the street between the soldiers and the Palestinian civilians, including many children on the street. Several Palestinian boys threw rocks in the direction of the tank and APC’s. Others chanted and shouted. Some of the soldiers got out of the vehicles and took aim with their guns as they stood behind corners. The tank made a show of raising and lowering its gun at us.

After about 5-10 minutes, the soldiers advanced in their vehicles. Without the media present and being a small number of people, the internationals decided to stand aside and let the vehicles pass but followed them and then worked their way between the soldiers and the Palestinian boys in a narrow street. The situation grew very tense, and the internationals made the decision to move into an alleyway where the soldiers on foot wanted to move to take up position to fire their guns. With the internationals in the alley off to the side, rocks and live fire were exchanged. The Palestinian boys ran away after the shooting started. After about 10-15 minutes, the soldiers retreated. Three internationals with first-aid training went to check to see if any Palestinians were injured, but fortunately everyone was OK. The entire event was videotaped.

After this, the internationals participated in several activities – including an investigation of occupied houses and houses under threat of demolition. Internationals also accompanied relief workers to distribute food and medicine. Earlier in the day a Palestinian relief volunteer was arrested from the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees center. The reason given was that he was wearing a medallion with the photo of a martyr around his neck.

Internationals accompanied the relief workers all afternoon as they delivered medicine to sick children and infant formula and some staple food supplies. Infant formula is not available in the shops in the old city, and the only way people can get it while under curfew is for these volunteers to deliver it. One of out deliveries was to a house being occupied by soldiers. We had to pass the formula through a small hole in the wall because the door was barricaded.

During our deliveries, we were asked to go and intervene in an arrest under progress. About two blocks away, two Palestinian men, a taxi driver and passenger (recently there are almost no taxis out and about), were handcuffed and were being placed in a military vehicle. One male international attempted to intervene but was roughly forced away by the soldiers. Next we approached the soldiers.

They told us to stop, but we kept walking with our hands out to our sides. They fired into the air. We slowed down but kept walking. They then lowered a gun to aim at us, but we continued walking. Then they started walking towards us very fast so we stopped. When they reached us they demanded that we leave. We calmly explained that the people at the other end of the street had asked us to come and inquire about these men because they were quite concerned about them. The soldiers said that they were being arrested and taken to the detention camp. By this point they had been placed inside the vehicle with the door closed. We tried to get more information, but were told that we were in no position to be asking questions of soldiers. I disagreed of course, but as they were becoming more aggressive and were only two internationals we left. I can only hope these two men are OK.

Palestinians keep asking me where I’m from. When I say the United States, they always respond with “You are welcome”. One of the relief workers told me that she thinks the people in the United States are good people, but they don’t know the truth about what is happening in Palestine. When they understand the truth, she says, she thinks they will support the Palestinian people and the occupation will end.

The truth is that after two invasions this year, the beautiful city of Nablus is littered with rubble that was once people’s homes. One school was destroyed, rebuilt, and destroyed again since April. Mosques have been desecrated. Young boys have been shot in the head simply for throwing stones at tanks or for simply being outside when the army doesn’t want them to be. People cannot buy food or medicine because they can’t leave their homes, and relief workers need international escorts to keep from being detained and arrested.
And when they get bored or just angry, the soldiers shoot at the kites – the one beautiful symbol of freedom left in Nablus. Every single person in the old city has a story of a home vandalized, a family member injured, a friend being killed. I have stopped going into homes to photograph damage done by soldiers because it would literally consume all of our time.

———-
Sam Messier and Jill Dreier, with the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace are in Palestine joining hundreds of internationals with the International Solidarity Movement in nonviolent direct action to end Israel’s illegal military occupation of Palestine. More on their trip at: www.ccmep.org/palestine.html

Internationals Help Deliver Food & Stop Bullets

By Jill Dreier

What the UN refuses to do in Palestine: Internationals Help Deliver Food & Stop Bullets

‘No here we have nothing to live for, so we don’t care, but YOU, you have to return to tell the world what is happening here,
so YOU take care”

So, before I get started about yesterday, let me say that while Sam was dodging rubber bullets, tear gas and sound bombs at the demonstration today (courtesy, of course, of the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF)), I didn’t have one gun pointed at me or any shots fired over my head today. For the first day since I have been here in Nablus.

Ok, yesterday: while Sam, Merna and I were buying bread for families, two Israeli armored personnel carriers (APC’s) pulled up and shut the bread stand down. Then as one APC pulled away, a kid in the alley right next to the APC threw a Molotov cocktail and scored a hit on part of the APC.

So the Israeli soldiers FREAK out and start shooting into the apartment building, in the completely wrong direction. We SCREAMED at him and he stopped, but the other APC heard the fire and came back around the corner for ‘support’. We de-escalated the soldiers and then one said to me, “go and bring me the map.” (y’all will like my Israeli accent).

So I walked down the street looking for a map. Now, meanwhile the people on the street have emptied and they are all hiding in the alleys and coves and such. So I walk down and several are yelling to me, ‘what does he want?’ Of course I don’t understand until someone yells in English, but I had the gist already and was saying, ‘who the hell knows?’

I picked up some paper trash and called back to him, ‘is this it? Is this it?’ — it’s good to play dumb, of course. So, they pulled back and left. Well, I needed a breather after that one, so we left the scene for about five minutes. Moments later we get a call, that now there are tanks, APC’s and some jeeps in the same area, as well as 12 international activists — could we immediately go there?

Due to a horrible lack of communication, no one had any idea what we had just been thru when we arrived. Of course from OUR end we had gotten the word out about what happened. So, long story longer – Palestinians started throwing rocks and since this is about their only form of resistance, we stepped back. This of course let the IOF be able to fire their guns (hard to explain without seeing the street). Two jeeps even pulled up right in front of us and opened fire. Of course we were screaming and then they stopped and took off.

The cool part is being in the streets with the Palestinians and feeling their energy as they clap and chant (they get loud — they chant ‘god is great’) and stand with us, knowing the tanks and such won’t fire at them with us there. There aren’t ANY women of course, and that sucks….

Digressing a bit: three or four nights ago, Sam and I walked down the road into the Balata Refugee Camp and stayed at a martyr’s house. Stressed out family. Since then I have been with a few more martyr’s families and realized that that family was an exception, according to my experience because these families were like all the rest of the families here, kind kind kind. I swear I have never drank so much coffee and tea in my life.

Another woman, Serena, stayed at the stressed out family’s house the next night and told us the following morning that the family actually got into a fist fight (yeah, the wife and daughters too!) with their neighbor.

So today, most people went to a demonstration at the Huwara Checkpoint, an hour walk, but I decided to stay in Nablus. I hung out with four Palestinians relief volunteers and delivered milk to babies. Yeah, parents do not have milk for their babies/young children.

I heard today that Palestine has the largest growing population in the world, over 50% is under the age of sixteen. That was chill enough, but the workers want escorts for ‘security’ and since another volunteer was taken from the center the day before, they were a little more nervous .

Mohammed, the one taken yesterday was wearing a martyr necklace and the IOF ripped it off his neck (the pendent is of a photo of his friend, a martyr). A martyr, for those who do not know, is term used for a suicide bomber AND anyone who has been killed during this intifada. Mohammed was released today, but they beat him up pretty badly, so he is home for a bit. No reason for detaining him at all.

So, after walking around delivering milk several internationals decided that they wanted to check on an apartment building on the hill where the soldiers were staying and occupying. After getting another international, the 6 of us headed up the hill to check on these families. I figured that they occupied that building strategically.

A few of us went in (women) and chatted with the Palestinian families and got their needs noted, foods and medicines. The apartment was 5 floors, 2 apartments on each floor. The soldiers had one complete floor and all them were shirtless, hanging out, playing guitar, like they owned the place, while 3 families were terrified for their lives. The other apartments were empty (it seemed like a brand new building, not fully occupied with residents).

So after that, we split into 3 groups of 2 to get the food and medicine. My partner was Fadi. A pretty resourceful guy, before I knew it he had gotten a ride in a big flatbed truck to Balata, where the UN warehouse is. Remember it is curfew, so NOTHING is allowed on the streets, let alone driving out to the outskirts of town. Curfew here has meant the last 40 days, 24 hours a day with tiny windows of precarious time to fetch food.

We made it and just after pulling in, a tank and a bulldozer showed up to close the road since cars were driving around. The UN warehouse is a joke. FOOD is everywhere, sitting around. The UN is a joke. Thousands of poor people with NO money to buy food in Nablus and WE hitch a ride, pick up food and deliver it ourselves.

On the way back, we saw a tank driving pretty fast on the parallel road but we beat it and got back to Nablus alright. Then we separated the food and got ready to go. Well, Fadi, wanted to get the one and only ambulance from the center to load the food to take up on the hill. But it wasn’t around, so we used his van — sketchy, eh?

Though we made it up there alright, the soldiers had switched out and all bets were off for us going back inside to deliver the food ourselves. After biting my lip and talking to the soldiers, they got one of the Palestinians to come out to bring the food in. The whole situation and bargaining and discussing is crap, although the soldier was talkable, if you know what I mean.

So during all of this, the soldier says, ‘you don’t remember me, do you?’ “oh, from before …..here right?” “No,” he replied and then I knew he was the guy looking for the map yesterday, in the APC.

“Oh yeah, I remember,’ I quipped back. He said, ‘So you didn’t help me yesterday, why should I help you?”( I was trying to get into the house and possibly spend the night there with the families.) I said, ‘What more could I have done, I walked down the street and looked for the map, geez?’

Talking to them is difficult and one must stay calm to help prevent retaliation against the Palestinians, believe me, whether there are soldiers who don’t ‘agree’ with the occupation or ‘hate’ when a Palestinian is killed, they all have a choice to refuse, and therefore, NO SYMPATHY from me.

One last thing. As we were walking back (dusk, I’m no longer too hesitant to walk in the dark, except for snipers) today a woman pulls up in a car and says, ‘aren’t you afraid to be on the street?’ I said, ‘no, not really, they recognize us now, they know who we are and why we are here.’ She said, ‘ take care’ I said to her, ‘aren’t you afraid to drive now?’ (many people sneak around in cars), and she said, ‘no here we have nothing to live for, so we don’t care, but YOU, you have to return to tell the world what is happening here, so YOU take care” and she drove off.

So many times during the day, I just want to release a little and cry but I don’t, and this was one of those times, for sure. I can only kind of get choked up, not cry, probably because I am so angry and not sad.

* Jill Dreier is one of two Coloradans from the Colorado Campaign for Middle East Peace in Palestine joining hundreds of internationals with the International Solidarity Movement in nonviolent direct action to end Israel’s illegal military occupation of Palestine.

Leaving Balata

by Amanda D.

I’m on the plane home. Much as I want to see people I’m not sure how to talk to them. Much as I wanted to go home and do laundry and take a bath I’m figuring out how and when I can get back. I was sad yesterday to leave the family I had been staying with in Balata. I was sad to leave both because they are wonderful and I’m not sure if I’ll ever see them again and because I can leave. I can pack up and go home to my own bed where I no longer am afraid to sleep at night because there are not tanks on the street outside, and my house has not been spray painted with arrows to lead the Israeli military right to it so they can destroy it with tanks or explosives. The family I stayed with cannot even go to the neighboring city, Nablus.

Balata is a refugee camp with 20,000 or so refugees in it. These are people who have been displaced since 1948 and cannot get out of the West Bank to return to their cities or villages in what is now known as Israel. There are three families in Balata who have requested that internationals stay with them because they are afraid their houses will be demolished. The Israeli government has a policy of demolishing the homes of “suicide bombers” or other fighters. The people here call the snipers or bombers “martyrs.” But some call anyone who has died for Palestine a martyr. So, for example those nine children killed recently in Gaza are martyrs as well.

In the last few months, Balata has had several martyrs. There have already been house demolitions, and also areas that were bombed from F-16s or Apaches. The name of the son who died in at the home where I am staying is Mohanned. He was 18 years old when he died, I saw his picture. His family is still grieving. He has 9 brothers and sisters. If the military were to demolish his house they would displace his entire family who are ALREADY refugees from Jaffa. His younger sisters love doing my hair at night. I don’t speak Arabic, and a few of the siblings understand English but only a little. Still, we got to know each other through charades. They have opened their home to us, feed as very well and laugh with and at us. One of the sisters taught me a card game called five. The oldest brother, Mohammed, loves music and he fixed up the family’s stereo. We had a little music exchange- they listened to our American music and played Arabic music for us. The biggest hit was Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller,’ which I happened to have with me. Mohammed likes love songs (his little brother made fun of him) and so he played a few by Egyptian and Lebanese artists. The idea of this family losing their home is infuriating and heart breaking.

One of the problems is that the military doesn’t always evacuate the other homes, or warn the neighbors of a demolition. Again this is in a refugee camp, the houses are all really close to one another. This can mean neighboring houses also go down- with people in them. The brother of the family some of the other New Yorkers are staying with had the first floor of his home destroyed by tank shelling. He and his son were inside. His son was okay but he broke both of his legs and was wheelchair-bound, now he has canes.

Nablus is under its 41st day of 24 hour curfew today (Monday). I feel like I haven’t adequately explained curfew. All the stores except a stray one here and there are closed. Schools, factories, offices- closed. Nobody can work or go to school so there is no money being made or exchanged. Ambulances can run, but some of the neighboring villages can’t be reached by ambulance because of road blocks and (when I say this I mean 6-9 feet piles of big rocks, stones and gravel sometimes dug out of the road itself and pushed to form a pile that all over the road and on either side so you can’t drive around it) or snipers. Sometimes you see men in the street, children, and every once in a while women. The doctor at UPMRC and a friend pointed out that this is harder for women and children because they are in the house more.

But, in the airport in Switzerland I saw in an article that the population of Nablus had ignored curfew today and the whole city had opened up as if there was no curfew. The only sort of Palestinian resistance we see in the news is sensationalized “suicide bombers” or when snipers attack settlements or settlers that are misrepresented as civilians or villagers. Friends saw people in kuffiyehs passing out communiqués on Friday. They were told that the people were from Fatah. When my friend asked them what it was they said it was ‘for the children.’ The second time they asked about it they were told it was a message to people to open up the city and resist the curfew. I always knew terrorist was not the right word to describe these people or their struggle. After seeing the activities of the Israeli military here, that characterization is insane. The Palestinians are facing the 4th or 5th largest army in the world (!) and according to international law, the occupation is illegal.

And further in the international law department- it is illegal under the Geneva Convention (I’m told, I need to double check but I know it is illegal) to occupy homes where people are living during wars. It’s also illegal to use hollow point bullets, which both the Israeli military and the New York City Police Department use. But I met this man who had his house occupied 5 times in the last 12 months. He said, “The Palestinian people are not terrorists, the Israeli soldiers are terrorists, they occupied my home.” This family has a beautiful house with a panoramic view of the valley and Nablus. We went Saturday to try and get a statement about the occupation of their house. I guess because of its position and view, the army decided it would be one of its bases of operation.

The family: husband, wife, 2 teenage girls and 2 younger boys were welcoming, although we didn’t meet the mother. She’s been ill since the occupation, she has a heart condition and was sleeping when we arrived. They said the noise of tanks and helicopters at close range sets off her heart and too much stress could be fatal. After sharing lemonade and coffee with all of us, we sat on the family’s porch to talk. The house is empty of furniture except for beds. Because the soldiers move all the furniture and stain it, it’s all stashed away, piled up in one of the small rooms. The father says they’ve spent nearly $100,000 repairing the damage after the soldiers left. That’s why the walls have not been repainted and the furniture waits in a room- so when the soldiers return they won’t be able to destroy anything. They also paid the electricity and water for the times they were kicked out and the soldiers were there, they have received no compensation from the Israeli government.

They spent 12 years building the house and lived in it for one week this December before the soldiers occupied it the first time. The girl, 17, tells us each time they come it is the same, but we focus on the most recent occupation. In December, the soldiers were there for five weeks. They were there in February twice, April, and then this last time starting on June 20th for 32 days. At 8 a.m. on the 20th, when 10 family members were there, they heard 20 tanks, 10 APC’s and 1 Apache helicopter overhead and coming up the hill to their house. They all threw themselves on the floor, but then heard loud knocking. From past experience they knew if they didn’t open the door the soldiers would break it down. The father opened the door and 40 or 50 soldiers with machine guns streamed into the house. The family refused to leave and all ten of them were forced into a small bedroom on the first floor. This, the fifth time, they were allowed to use the bathroom and the kitchen. The other four times the Red Cross brought them food and tried to make sure they could use the bathroom.

The soldiers brought in all kinds of equipment and guns. The family sent the younger kids to stay with a neighbor or a family. The soldiers shot out of the windows down into Nablus and killed two men just down from the occupied home who had been standing on a little porch outside their window. One of the worst things, according to the family, is when the soldiers would bring groups of 3 or 4 Palestinian men handcuffed and blindfolded to the house. The family could hear the men being beaten in the next room. Sometimes the soldiers would throw away their I.D. cards, the father said he would go out and look through the trash for them later on and try to return them. After 10 days the family was forced to leave. 22 days later the soldiers left their homes. So they are now with no furniture waiting. They say it is hard to sleep-especially for the kids- who have nightmares about the soldiers and the beatings.

We’re getting closer to New York now, I haven’t finished my customs declaration yet. I wonder what will happen if I put Occupied Palestine for #9 “Countries visited on this trip prior to U.S. arrival.” My friends saw the video that Jihad (whose family my friends stayed with) and Mohanned (whose family I stayed with) did before they died on T.V. in Balata. Both of them mentioned that the Palestinian people were going through so much, and internationally people were silent and that no one comes forward to help the Palestinians. I am furious that my money is paying for the occupation, and that those are our weapons the Israelis use.

Time to get a little sleep.

Reporte Sobre la Invación de Nablus

by Freddie Marrero

Nunca me había encontrado tan cerca de la opresión descarnada y de la muerte como en los días recientes.

En la mañana del Jueves, 1ro de agosto de 2002, fuimos informados que había prescencia militar en el campamento de refugiados de Balata en Nablus y que estaban disparando y lanzando gazes lácrimogenos para imponer el toque de queda, que desde hace unos días la gente estaba ignorando. Todo el grupo de internacionalistas se movilizó hasta Balata de inmediato. Mientras en una parte de la calle todo parecía transcurir con normalidad, unos metros más adelante había un enfrentamiento entre chicos con piedras y un vehículo (‘jeep’) militar con varios soldados. Los lanzaban piedras y los soldados respondían con disparos al aíre y gases lacrimógenos. Desde una casa podíamos ver la confrontación y hasta allí nos llegó el gas lacrimógeno que contrarestamos oliendo cebollas. Luego de un rato, los militares retrocedieron, cediendo su posición, acompañados de los aplausos de los chicos.

Los chicos ganaron terreno y llegaron a un campo abierto en donde habían dos tanques y un tercero a la distancia. Allí pudimos presenciar otro tipo de confrontación: chicos con piedras contra tanques militares. Vaya espectáculo de David contra Goliath. En cierto momento los chicos se acercaban a los tanques lanzando piedras a lo que los tanques respondían movíendose hacia ellos y lanzando tiros al aire. Los chicos se replegaban a su posición original. Los tanques retrocedían a su posición original. Los chicos jugaban, reían, cantaban un rato para coger un aire y embestir de nuevo. Así sucedió por horas, hasta que sucedió algo lamentable cuando una bala impacto una casa cerca de donde estaba sentado un grupo de chicos jutno a algunos internacionalistas del MSI. Dos chicos resultaron heridos con los fragmentos de bala y cemento. Uno de ellos en un brazo y otro de gravedad en la cabeza. Llegamos hasta la clinica de Balata donde lo habían llevado de inmediato y pudimos ver como lo tranferian en ambulancia, luego de ser vendado y con un suero, hasta el hospital. Luego nos enteramos que tenía 16 años y que sobrevivó.

Por lo sucedido ese día y en la noche anterior en donde escuchamos más disparos que de constumbre, era evidente que las fuerzas de ocupación querían re-imponer por la fuerza el toque de queda que el pueblo de Nablus estaba ignorando masivamente.

En el centro de la ciudad se escuchaban disparos que se iban intensificando entrada la tarde. Tanques caminaban cerca de donde me estaba quedando, en el centro de Nablus. Haciendo ronda en la calle Faisal fueron confrontados por chicos con piedras. Allí abrieron fuego hiriendo un niño en un pie. Llegé al lugar cinco minutos luego del incidente solo para encontrarme con las manchas de sangre en el suelo y un pedazo de carne que otro niño sostenía en su mano para mostrármelo.

A las 12:45 AM recibimos noticias que un convoy de alrededor de 30 tanques, APC y jeeps especializados en demoliciones estaban entrando a la ciudad provenientes de una base militar cercana. Especulamos que el propósito es demoler algunas de las veinti-tantas casas de mártires marcadas para ser destruidas, como castigo a la familia, por el gobierno de Israel. Me acosté a dormir.

A las 4AM, del viernes, 2 de agosto de 2002, me despertaron con la noticia que los ‘snipers’ recien habían matado a un amigo de los dueños de la casa en donde nos estamos quedando. Había comenzado una invación a la antigua ciudad de Nablus. Alrededor de 140 tanques, APC y Jeeps volvían a entrar a la ciudad histórica de Nablus para tomar control de la misma, realizar arrestos y demoler hogares. Entre detonaciones y ráfagas intermitentes, pero incesantes, me dijeron que una llamada acaba de informar que no muy lejos de nosotros acaban de matar a un amigo de la familia que nos albergaba. El jóven salía a su balcón para recibir una bala en su sien. Ráfagas y detonaciones iban acompañadas de llamadas telefónicas al hogar detallando los nuevos heridos en el barrio. En un momento unas ráfagas fueron acompañadas por los gritos de una mujer, que resultaba ser la compañera de alguien que se econtraba en la casa. Cerca, cerca. Una bala traspasó sus dos muslos. Gracias al coraje de los palestinos que arriesgan sus vidas en ambulancias y de otros internacionalistas que les acompañaron, una ambulancia pudo llegar hasta a ella minutos mas tardes y salvarla. Todos en la casa estuvimos despiertos hasta que se hizo de día. Sentíamos mucha tensión e intensidad. Discutimos con los miembros de la familia lo que debíamos hacer si llegaban los militares a registrar o a arrestar a alguien.

Ese día estuvimos atrapados dentro de la casa debido a que el operativo de invasión continuó durante el día y sabíamos que habían ‘snipers’ apostados en uno de los edificios continuos al nuestro. Además de detener a cientos y arrestar a decenas, el operativo consiste en demoler varias casas y edificios. Algunas de estas fueron demolidas en el área cercana a donde nos encontramos, sienténdo la presión del impacto y pudiendo ver la bola de polvo que se levantaba a tan solo unas cuadras.

Irónicamente, durante el día, a pesar de las detonaciones, ese día pude descansar bastante ya que no había mucho que hacer, salvo fumar, escribir y jugar cartas.

Pasadas las 7PM llegó un grupo del MSI que había podido caminar por horas por la Antigua Ciudad. Nos dieron un reporte de primera mano sobre la situación afuera: las calles desiertas, repletas de militares, soldados tumbando puertas y entrando a casas para realizar búsquedas y arrestos, palestinos usados como escudos humanos, un número no determinado de casas y edificios destruidos por detonaciones de dinamitas y/o disparos de tanques, incluyendo el viejo edificio de las Naciones Unidas, un escuela, el edificio municipal y varias casas de mártires y de personas buscadas.

En este momento (8:44PM) todo se escucha bastante calmado afuera, en comparación a las últimas 17 horas. Las ráfagas y las detonaciones son cada vez menos frecuentes. En la mañana del Sábado pude salir de la casa y junto a una amiga de Londres caminamos por una hora hasta el punto de acceso de Nablus. Dejamos a un Nablus invadido y desierto con mucha tristeza. Llevándo con nosotros la imágen de la familia que nos albergó por una semana que ya se iba haciendo nuestra. Mi amiga iba rumbo a su avión de regreso, y yo rumbo a Ramallah para reunirme con Palestino-Boricua con quien había quedado en reunirme el día anterior, pero las circustancias me impidieron llegar a tiempo. Queda en Nablus un buen grupo de internacionalistas que sigue documentando la situación allí y trabajando junto a los Palestinos.

La ocupación ha llegado a un punto desenfrenado y necesita que todos digamos basta. Nada de lo que los internacionalistas hemos visto y vivido se equipara a lo que Palestinos tienen que enfrentar día a día. En Nablus la gente mantiene la resistencia, a pesar de todo…

Otro mundo es posible. Hagámoslo.

Addendum: Justo antes de enviar este mensaje me comuniqué con gente en la casa donde me estaba quedando en Nablus. Ayer los militares entraron a la misma y confiscaron cintas de video y rollos de fotos de varios activistas. Nadie fue detenido ni herido y la casa no fue buscada, en parte debido a la presencia de internacionales allí. Actualmente se tiene información de al menos 4 muertos, más de una docena de heridos, más de 50 personas arrestadas y un número aún no determinado de casas demolidas con dinamita.

Report from Nablus

by phone from Paul in Nablus

I spoke with Paul last night (about 9am in Nablus). He, Nat, Leah, Alberto, Jonathon and 2 other ISM volunteers (one from Ireland and the other from Vancouver) are currently in a home in Nablus that has been identified as being at risk of demolition. The 7 ISM internationals arrived to the home last night as family members were stripping the house of all valuables and personal items in anticipation of the house being destroyed. All relatives have now left with the exception of the 2 elderly grandparents (the grandfather is disabled from a stroke), who are being accompanied by the internationals. The house is anticipated to be a target because the son was a suicide bomber. The family described the son as “going crazy” as a result of several friends and family members killed, tortured and taken away and after seeing what had happened in Ramallah last March.

Israeli troupes are throughout the town of Nablus. As Paul and I spoke, I heard several explosions. The ISM volunteers had to hike cross-country into the city as they were unable to pass through the checkpoint. The group of internationals were repeatedly redirected by patrolling soldiers as they walked through the city streets, at times being unable to negotiate as warning shots were fired before they could get close enough to be heard by the soldiers. Yesterday, Paul and the others witnessed approximately 50 men being blindfolded and loaded onto buses near the old city. There were many journalists present. They also came
across a house which had been taken over by Israeli soldiers, confining the two families who lived there to the bottom floor and occupying the upper levels.

The internationals successfully persuaded one of the soldiers to locate diapers in the home and give these to the family, who had an infant locked in with them. Also during the day, they observed two patrols searching homes, following the soldiers from house to house and accompanying the families as they were forced to stand in the street while soldiers ransacked their homes. At one point, a soldier attempted to leave with a 12-year old boy when Paul was able to call attention to this and the boy was returned unharmed. As the soldiers went on with their search, they forced a Palestinian man to enter each home before the soldiers would go inside. The internationals asserted to the soldiers that this is a violation of the Geneva Conventions, forbidding the use of civilians as human shields. The soldiers eventually stopped this tactic after being reminded that “The Israeli army is said to be one of the most moral in the world, and that such behavior has the appearance of calling that status into question.”

At this point, the internationals are planning to stay at the house for as long as it is considered to be a target. IndyMedia has been notified and Paul’s sister called KPFA and left a message there. Apparently the Orange phone does NOT work in Nablus and only a couple of them have other types of phones that are functioning. There is no electricity in the house so they are unable to keep non-Orange phones and video cameras charged. There is a landline to the family’s home, which is how we communicated.